§ Baroness Gardner of Parkesasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are able to make an announcement on the next stage of the new British Library building at St. Pancras.
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Lord Belstead)My right honourable friend the Minister for the Arts has today authorised a start on the second stage of the building, which is estimated to cost £61 million and will be ready for occupation in 1993. Work on this stage will start in 1987, in parallel with the first stage, which will be ready in 1991.
When both stages are complete, the library's new facilities will include substantial new storage space in the modern environmental conditions which the collection requires, reading rooms for the departments 648WA of manuscripts and oriental manuscripts and printed books, and open access reading rooms for the Science Reference Library.
Further decisions on later stages will be taken and announced in due course.